In 2004 FBI thought Antiwar.com website could be “threat to national security on behalf of a foreign power.” The site began in 1995 as journalistic effort to oppose US aggression in Balkans. Only threat to Americans is US political class that views endless wars as a “jobs” program, even refuses to stop arming terrorists

Though Garris and Raimondo [who died in June 2019] agreed to drop the FOIA claims, they stopped short of dropping two other claims under the Privacy Act.

In the latest development Wednesday, the Ninth Circuit affirmed and reversed in part a federal judge’s summary judgment in favor of the FBI.The panel ruled that because the FBI had not met its burden of demonstrating that the 2004 memo was pertinent to an ongoing law enforcement activity, it must be expunged.

“Because we so hold, we need not and do not address the question of whether the creation of the 2004 Memo also violated the Privacy Act,” U.S. Circuit Judge A. Wallace Tashima, a Bill Clinton appointee, wrote.

A second memo, which detailed a Halliburton shareholder meeting and listed Antiwar.com as part of a catalog of sources on the meeting, was not expunged because it was pertinent to ongoing law enforcement activity, the panel ruled.

Specifically, the 32-page ruling states, the lower court did not abuse its discretion in granting a protective order to the FBI precluding Garris from deposing certain retired FBI agents.

“The district court granted the FBI’s motion for a protective order without prejudice, reasoning that it would be premature to depose the former agents before learning what evidence the government would rely on, given that it would be burdensome to the retired agents,” Tashima wrote.

U.S. Circuit Judges Marsha Berzon and William Fletcher, also Bill Clinton appointees, joined in the opinion.